I wrote a book called The Taste of New Wine because I couldn't find a book that talked about the reality of the situation and how we were dishonest and afraid.
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I have even written a book about Wine called The Grapes of Ralph.
When I was working on 'Drown' - this was way back in the mid-'90s - I had this idea that I wanted to do another collected stories. I wanted to do another book like 'Drown' that focused specifically on infidelity.
The stories of wine lords who trade wine on intimidation or food critics who trade free meals for reviews... those are the stories of my life. I am telling the stories of my life in a true way.
I've always written about social concerns. My first book was about Spanish Harlem.
I had written a book. For various reasons, the publishing industry had decided that my book was going to be 'important.' The novel had taken me 12-and-a-half years to write, and after being with the book for so long, I had no real perspective on the merits or demerits of what I had written. I hoped it was good, but feared that it wasn't.
One of the commitments I made to myself when I decided to write a book was to be brutally honest, particularly about myself.
My first novel, 'In the Drink,' begun when I was 29 and floundering and published when I was 36 and married, was about a 29-year-old woman whose life was even more screwed up than my own had been.
I didn't write the book to sell the book, but to tell my experiences.
I told my whole life story in my book.
'The Gambler' by Dostoevsky. It was the first time I realised that it was possible to have good and evil in one person. It led me to read a lot of Russian literature.
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